As chair of the Mock Pura Belpré, I gathered title suggestions from Oregon’s REFORMA members and other library staff of books that should be considered for the Mock Pura Belpré prior to the November 4th meeting. I narrowed this list down by having REFORMA members vote on their top 8 picks for discussion. Once I had the top 8 title selected for discussion, I sent out the list to a variety of listserv. Before we broke up into small discussion groups at last Saturday’s meeting, I provided information to the participants about the historical significance of this award as well as the selection purpose and criteria. The discussions groups comments about the titles were insightful, lively and at times very impassioned about their favorites!
The 1st place winner for our author choice was “Bravo!: Poems About Amazing Hispanics” by Margarita Engle. Our 2nd place winner which is considered the honor book is “Yo Soy Muslim” by Mark Gonzales. We also selected two winners for illustrator. Our 1st place was “All the Way to Havana” by Margarita Engle; illustrated by Mike Curato. Our 2nd place winner (and honor book) was “Danza” written and illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh. Now we just have to patiently wait for the American Library Association’s (ALA) 2018 Midwinter Conference to see if our top picks match up with ALA’s Pura Belpré Award Committee! Please take some time to look at these amazing books at your local library.
For more information about the Pura Belpré Award, visit the Pura Belpré Award http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/belpremedal
- Gabriela Hernandez (Peden)
Latino Services Specialist
Deschutes Public Library